Scholarship opportunities for trainees and clinician educators: learning outcomes from a case report writing workshop.

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Publishing a case report demonstrates scholarly productivity for trainees and clinician-educators. AIM: To assess the learning outcomes from a case report writing workshop. SETTING: Medical students, residents, fellows and clinician-educators attending a workshop. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: Case report writing workshop conducted nine times at different venues. PROGRAM EVALUATION: Before and after each workshop, participants self-rated their perceived competence to write a case report, likelihood of submitting a case report to a meeting or for publication in the next 6-12 months, and perceived career benefit of writing a case report (on a five-point Likert scale). The 214 participants were from 3 countries and 27 states or provinces; most participants were trainees (64.5 %). Self-rated competence for writing a case report improved from a mean of 2.5 to 3.5 (a 0.99 increase; 95% CI, 0.88-1.12, p < 0.001). The perceived likelihood of submitting a case report, and the perceived career benefit of writing one, also showed statistically significant improvements (p = 0.002, p = 0.001; respectively). Nine of 98 participants published a case report 16-41 months after workshop completion. DISCUSSION: The workshop increased participants' perception that they could present or publish a case report.